These 5 YouTube Music features are essential for the holiday season
Holiday streaming is a seasonal joy that only comes around once a year, and I always look forward to relaxing with my holiday music collection. I love using YouTube Music to stream songs during this season for many reasons, the main one being its YouTube integration.
When using YouTube Music during the holidays, be sure to take advantage of its features and change some settings to make streaming smoother for the season. Here are some features and settings that I recommend you check or change.
Create custom holiday radio stations
There are plenty of ways to find new music to suit your tastes and needs on YouTube Music, and these discovery features have helped me refresh my library regularly. If you’re looking for new holiday music to stream, the easiest way to do so is to take advantage of the YouTube Music version of Spotify Radio Stations for individual tracks.
Once you’ve found a holiday-themed playlist or album that matches your mood for the day, navigate to the three dots at the top of a track’s player (which will be visible once you play the song), then hit “Start Mix” to generate a radio queue based on that track. To see the queue on the YouTube Music app, swipe up while the song is playing.
You can continue to generate different mixes for tracks as you play, or use the ambience filters in your queue to generate (or tap “Related”) to see more recommendations.
Use ambient playlists
YouTube Music hosts a good collection of mood-based playlists for your various listening needs, each focusing on a genre, moment, or emotion. I like to use these playlists when I don’t have time to create a custom playlist for last minute projects or parties. YouTube Music doesn’t disappoint for the holidays either, since you can find versatile playlists for Christmas and party cheer, from classical to country to lo-fi to jazz.
To explore holiday playlists, open your YouTube Music app (mobile or desktop) and select “Explore.” Go to the “Moods & Genres” button, then under “Moods & Moments,” select “Christmas” (there is also a “Party” option you can use).
From there, find a playlist you like, click on it, then save it, download it, and share it.
Pause your listening history
When the holidays roll around, my streaming apps, whether Netflix, Spotify, or YouTube, are full of festive recommendations. Even though I’m tempted to mindlessly indulge in videos, movies, and music, I always make sure my algorithm isn’t too affected by my seasonal streaming.
If you want to listen to music during the holidays, be sure to pause your streaming history on YouTube Music so that your recommendations and music data aren’t affected.
In the YouTube Music app, go to your profile and tap Settings > Privacy & Location (Privacy & Data for iOS and Web App), then turn on Pause Watch History. You can also tap “Manage Watch History” to adjust additional controls, such as automatic deletion.
Take advantage of YouTube integration
One of the benefits of using YouTube Music is its integration with YouTube. YouTube has a large and exclusive collection of songs, playlists, podcasts, and other content that you won’t be able to find on its music app, but there is a feature that lets you add and stream YouTube-exclusive music content on YouTube Music.
I don’t normally take advantage of this, as I use YouTube Premium and stream unofficial remixes and exclusive music on the YouTube app (old habits die hard), so I streamline my YouTube Music library by restricting the videos I like on YouTube. However, I’ve been using this feature more in recent weeks, and it’s honestly made my life easier, so I might finally move on to integrating my YouTube likes into my music library.
On the mobile app, go to your profile and tap Settings > Recommendations (Playback & Restrictions for iOS), then turn on “Show the music you like from YouTube.”
On desktop, go to Settings > General and turn off “Show the music you like on YouTube.”
Use Ask for Music to Generate a Holiday Queue
YouTube Music and Spotify have released generative AI features to make your streaming easier. Although the AI features can get tiring everywhere you turn, one YouTube Music feature that I like to use sometimes is Ask for Music. This is an AI radio feature, similar to Spotify’s AI DJ and AI Playlist, that lets you generate personalized radio stations by tapping or speaking prompts on moods, activities, or genres.
To create an AI radio station on YouTube Music, go to the mobile app and scroll down on your home tab until you find “Request Music.” You will see a carousel of prompts and a text box. Tap the text box to enter a prompt for the music queue you want to create or use the pre-generated prompts available. You can also tap the mic icon to record an audio prompt instead.
Once generated, tap the bookmark icon to add it to your library as a playlist. Select the text box to edit or request another radio station.
If you want to enjoy unlimited features and ad-free streaming, you can subscribe to YouTube Music or purchase a YouTube Premium subscription to use both YouTube and YouTube Music without any interruptions.
- Subscription with advertisements
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No, the packages are ad-free
- Live TV
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No
YouTube Music integrates seamlessly with YouTube, giving you access to over 100 million songs. It comes with a 30-day free trial, and even its free tier supports skippable ads.
